February 6, 2007—An international wildlife expedition has
unearthed a treasure trove of new species from around the Philippines' Panglao island.
The new finds include more than 1,200 varieties of decapods—ten-legged creatures such as lobsters and crabs—and at least 4,000 types of mollusks, expedition leader Philippe Bouchet announced in a statement yesterday. (Related: "'Lost World' Found in Indonesia Is Trove of New Species" [February 7, 2006].)
Bouchet, of the French National Museum of Natural History, is seen here holding one of the discoveries, a new lobster species called Enoplometopus.
The finds were made during the Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project. The joint 2004-05 survey of the tiny island—located about 400 miles (640 kilometers) south of the capital, Manila—included about 80 scientists and volunteers from 19 countries (Philippines map).
As part of the announcement, the Panglao project also turned over more than a hundred samples of the rare species to the Philippine National Museum, the Associated Press reported.